How do you define “success”?

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What does “success” mean to you personally? Is the definition you hold truly yours? Does it excite you and compel you into action?

As the new year begins, let’s take a moment to consider some simple sentence completions you can utilize to begin to define success for yourself in new ways. Grab a sheet of paper or open your word processor and take a moment to write down some of the things that come to mind for you as you complete the following sentences:

I know I am successful when I am BEING…
(e.g. generous, playfully creative, encouraging…)

I know I am successful when I am DOING…
(e.g. great work, what is most important, something that adds richness to another’s life…)

I know I am successful when I am HAVE…
(e.g. extra money in the bank, fantastic friends, a solid and strong marriage, a steady stream of new clients, a clean and organized home…)

I know I am successful when I am GIVING…
(e.g. life-enriching value, encouragement, appreciation, space, my time in service…)

The beautiful thing about these simple sentence completions is that you get to play around with what success can look like for you from different perspectives. So I challenge you to take each of these sentences in turn and with a playful curiosity, just go through each of them over and over again and see what shows up for you. Notice what outcomes energize and excite you, and use that to guide you in 2012. And be sure to share your answers with others who can support you in living your definitions of success!

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Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM). The WOW! Movement(TM) helps leaders and organizations to define what success means to them and then supports them in creating powerful and sustainable ways to make it a reality! To explore bringing The WOW! Movement(TM) to your organization, contact Denver for a no-cost, no-obligation Leadership Coaching Strategy Session: denver@thewowmovement.com.

Being a Stand in a Sit-Down World

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Being a stand is becoming an active expression of a possible new future you are committed to bringing into existence. It’s a future that inspires you, calls forth new growth, and attracts and mobilizes others into constructive, creative action.

What do you stand for?

By its very nature, being a stand is about becoming someone you have never been before. As you stand for a new future, you also create a powerful context for yourself that propels you to grow and develop. Being a stand will require and will call forth a huge amount of courage. It will challenge you and demand the greatest strength you can find within yourself. It will require that you strip away the distractions and non-essentials, and mobilize your resources and connections in new ways.

Not only can you stand for something individually, but your organization can join together to be a collective stand. Consider how your growing business can benefit as you explore these types of questions with your employees:

  • What do we stand for as an organization?
  • What is the future that inspires us and is worth giving our energy, time,
    and resources to create?
  • How committed are we to working together in living as that future NOW?
  • What is our strategy for bringing our stand into the world?
  • Who can we invite to join us?

This is a very powerful set of questions that can unite people and infuse their work with incredible meaning and purpose – a powerful motivating force! I encourage you to schedule a meeting now to ask and explore these questions with your staff and stakeholders.

What are the benefits of being a stand as a leader?

  1. You have a new source of identity. Your identity can now come from the future you are standing for instead of from the past you have already lived.
  2. You begin to speak and listen from that stand. That makes your presence as a leader very powerful and influential.
  3. As a living expression of your stand – you invite others to explore what they stand for, or to join you in your stand.
  4. It’s energizing! If you really live your stand, you’ll notice a lift in your energy and a desire to take better care of YOU.
  5. It makes you an authentic, inspiring leader – a leader who is truly creating the future, not just preserving a past.
  6. Others are inspired to follow you – because we like to follow people who stand for something.
  7. You live life with a strong sense of meaning and purpose; you know WHY you get out of bed in the morning, and you handle every-day challenges with greater confidence.
  8. You have a clear direction of where to focus your attention, energy, and resources. You know what books to read, what classes to take, and what conversations to engage in…
  9. You become a powerful attracting force to others – they will want to join you, buy from your company, and learn more about what you are up to.
  10. When you are nearing the end of this life, you look back on a life that really mattered – and you see yourself as one who made a lasting impact.

Being a stand is not an easy undertaking. There are many challenges that arise, both from within yourself and from around you. The status quo, for example, is a powerful force that will challenge your stand. And there are many more: anxiety… feeling weird and out of alignment with others… social pressures… the culture of easy and comfort (the “sit-down world”)… psychological barriers… lack of support… reactions and distractions… are among the many forces that will oppose your stand. And yet, these are the forces that will provide the necessary resistance to develop your strength and courage as a stand in the world. These are the very forces that make it challenging, often fun, and incredibly rewarding.

What do you stand for as a leader? And your company… what does it stand for? What is the future that you want to bring into existence through the power and influence of your leadership and organization? These are questions worth your time and reflection.

Click here to listen to and/or download a recording of “Being a Stand in a Sit-Down World.”

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Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM). The WOW! Movement(TM) helps leaders and organizations to take a stand in the world – and supports you in living and serving as that stand. To explore bringing The WOW! Movement(TM) to your organization, contact Denver for a no-cost, no-obligation Leadership Coaching Strategy Session: denver@thewowmovement.com.

 

Overwhelm: Impact on Leadership and a Growing Business – Part 3

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To eliminate overwhelm and restore balance in our lives and organizations, we are going to have to make some tough choices. We’re going to have to become intentional about how we are living our lives. And in one sense, we’re going to have to learn to operate within and yet be “unplugged from” the culture of overwhelm that surrounds us every day.

Before I share with you 12 new choices you can make to begin your journey back to balance, let’s take a look at how overwhelm may be impacting you personally and as a leader.

Personally, overwhelm prevents you from being your best in the following ways:

  • you notice yourself talking differently… you begin to speak from your overwhelm instead of from a sense of possibility
  • you have a smaller sense of self – overwhelm can literally erode your identity. You feel like you’re not good enough, capable enough, resilient enough…
  • overwhelm increases cortisol and reduces DHEA which causes loss of creativity, health issues, premature aging…
  • you begin to fear change, and actually lose the capacity to create change in your life and business

As a leader, overwhelm prevents you from being your best in the following ways: 

  • being in a mood of overwhelm makes it more difficult to fulfill your commitments, resulting in a loss of credibility and trust
  • you end up having conversations that revolve around issues related to your overwhelm, rather than related to the things that matter the most
  • it fosters marital breakdowns and conflicts
  • you lose the ability to create a compelling vision for your life and business
  • throws you into a survival mindset, shifting your focus to problems instead of possibilities (you focus on coping with “woes” instead of on creating “WOW!s”)
  • leading from a mood of overwhelm is contagious and can result in a culture of overwhelm which severely limits the horizon of possibilities for you as a leader and for your company

Bottom line: living in a mood of overwhelm seriously impacts your ability to live and lead with excellence and vitality.

Here are 12 new choices you can make to begin to eliminate overwhelm from your life and begin to restore balance:

  1. Trust life. Accept that what is happening has value – and look for it.
  2. Reduce your commitments to a level that fits within your time and energy limitations or expand your capacity and level of efficiency. (And/or hire someone, delegate, outsource, create a team to help fulfill your commitments.)
  3. Create winners – let others be right too.
  4. Slow down and relax your desire to be in control – delegate and let others contribute.
  5. Keep things simple – ask: “Just how simple can I make this?”
  6. Let go of what is no longer working. (Or reinvent it so it will work.)
  7. Complete what you start before adding more.
  8. Say “No!” three times more than you do right now.
  9. Only say “Yes!” if you absolutely mean it – and make sure you have the energy and time to follow through on the YES!
  10. Before you make a commitment to someone else, put it on your calendar. If there is no room, decline.
  11. Hang out with people who live a balanced life.
  12. Create your own definition of success; live that and nothing else.

Which of these new choices will you embrace and act on today?

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Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM). If you are struggling with overwhelm and would like to explore how Leadership Coaching can help you eliminate it, contact Denver for a no-cost, no-obligation Leadership Coaching Strategy Session: denver@thewowmovement.com.

Overwhelm: Impact on Leadership and a Growing Business – Part 2

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One of the most destructive aspects of overwhelm is that it makes life a struggle. And with on-going struggle comes the impulse to QUIT. Just take a moment and recall some of the times that you found yourself overwhelmed and struggling… in a marriage… in an exercise program… in the launch of a new business. During these times, did you notice the impulse to quit? Every year, thousands of people leave their marriages, stop their exercise programs, or close their businesses because they gave in to this impulse to quit.

If your business has a culture of overwhelm, then you have a culture where employees may be constantly wrestling with the impulse to quit their jobs. A recent Gallop poll revealed that 71% of people think about quitting their job at least once a day. I wonder how many of those people have those thoughts as a result of feeling overwhelmed?

Obviously, as business leaders who want to retain top talent and create a thriving business, we need to begin to proactively address the “woe of overwhelm.” And the reason is simple: we can’t achieve our highest aspirations and consistently deliver “WOW!” if we are living in the mood of overwhelm and struggle. We cannot create excellence if our energy and daily focus is committed to “surviving the impulse to quit.”

Here are 20 common personal causes of overwhelm. Why not print out this list and circle the causes that you feel apply to you? AND – for a really powerful exercise – take this list to other people and ask them, “How many of these do you feel apply to me personally?”

  1. Resisting what is (e.g. the state of the economy)
  2. Over committing
  3. Needing things to be perfect
  4. Needing to be right (and thus making others wrong)
  5. Needing to be in control
  6. Making things more difficult than they need to be (people often associate value with complexity, so they make things more complex, which can lead to overwhelm)
  7. Not being in touch with your own energetic capacity and skill level
  8. Not taking care of your health
  9. Creating your sense of worth from what you DO – therefore doing more and more in order to BE more
  10. The desire to win at all cost
  11. Not saying NO! often enough because it’s uncomfortable
  12. Low level of emotional maturity (you often feel like a child in an adult world)
  13. Too many new things in your life or business all at once (overload!!!)
  14. Not completing things – and yet adding more
  15. Being too nice, so you always say “YES!” – even though you don’t mean it
  16. Expecting too much of yourself and others (more, More, MORE!)
  17. Not feeling good enough – and so you set out to prove that you are!
  18. Not putting things on your calendar even though you have committed to them
  19. Hanging out with other overwhelmed people (contagious)!
  20. Working hard to live someone else’s definition of success

How many of these apply to you? The place to start dealing with the “woe of overwhelm” in your business is with you – the leader. Begin to observe yourself in action. Take the 20 causes above and reflectively consider how and if they apply to you personally. How are each of these impacting your ability to lead? How are each of these showing up in the culture of your company? Awareness is the first step. Once you see the cause in action, you can begin to choose differently.

When you eliminate overwhelm from your life and leadership, you reduce the amount of struggle you experience, and you quiet that inner impulse to quit. You are then more free to take the actions necessary to create “WOW!” and a thriving, successful, and sustainable business.

In the next and final part of this mini-series on overwhelm, we’ll look at 12 new choices you can make to eliminate overwhelm and begin to restore balance in your life and leadership. Be sure to subscribe to this blog to receive future updates automatically. (Use the form in the upper right-hand corner of the home page to subscribe.)

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Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM). If you are struggling with overwhelm and would like to explore how Leadership Coaching can help you eliminate it, contact Denver for a no-cost, no-obligation Leadership Coaching Strategy Session: denver@thewowmovement.com.

Overwhelm: Impact on Leadership and a Growing Business – Part 1

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Is it possible to be successful without being overwhelmed?

If you are in a growing business (actually, if you are breathing air), then you are quite familiar with the phenomenon of overwhelm. Growth brings with it increasing complexity. And increasing complexity bring new challenges and responsibilities that inch you closer and closer to the edge of your leadership capacity. “Who do I promote into leadership positions? How do I get our newly formed teams to work together more effectively? How do I manage the growing list of meetings and things to do? What happens if I make the wrong choice and people have to lose their jobs? And how do I ensure my wife that this crazy schedule won’t be forever?” These and many other issues can bring you to overwhelm.

Why is addressing the issue of overwhelm something that you should be concerned about as a business owner or leader? Because overwhelm is a MOOD, and moods set the horizon of possibilities for the future. If you and your employees are living and working in the woe-ful mood of overwhelm, you are severely restricting the future of your company. Simply put, you can’t consistently create “WOW!” from within the mood of overwhelm.

An easy way to begin to understand moods is by thinking of a circle. Positive moods create LARGE circles (large mood spaces) within which more possibilities can enter and be created. A leader who lives in positive moods will see their future as an open, expansive space in which many possibilities exist. They enjoy a greater sense of freedom and an expanded sense of self. They interpret things in a way that is positive and productive. They lead with greater effectiveness and impact. And this causes them to behave and act in ways that create what I call “Experiences of WOW!”

On the other hand, negative moods – such as overwhelm, resentment, resignation – create SMALL circles (small mood spaces) within which very few possibilities can enter and be created. A leader who lives in negative moods will see the future as a restrictive, shrinking space where very few possibilities exist. They feel captive to their work, victimized by circumstances such as the economy, and they have a restricted sense of self. They interpret events, circumstances, and the actions of others in negative, performance-reducing ways. They fail to really lead, resulting in a loss of credibility and trust from their followers. This causes them to behave and act in ways that create a culture of survival and struggle.

Given this understanding of the power of moods, you can easily see that one of your greatest challenges and opportunities as a leader is to create a culture of positive moods. If you truly desire your company to grow and thrive now and for years to come, then addressing the issue of overwhelm and moods is of vital importance.

Where is the best place to start? With you, the leader. You can’t lead people out of overwhelm if you yourself are living in it. So, take some time to get real honest with yourself. Do you find yourself living in a mood of overwhelm? (Do you wake up feeling overwhelmed? Do you go to bed at night feeling overwhelmed?) If so, how is that impacting your ability to lead? How is it impacting your ability to take your company to the next level?

In Part 2, we’ll look at 20 common causes of overwhelm. This will give you fresh insights you can begin to craft into new practices to eliminate overwhelm and unleash more of your un-lived potential as a leader of a growing, thriving company. (To receive future posting automatically via e-mail, please subscribe to this blog using the form in the upper right-hand corner of the home page.)

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Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM). If you are struggling with overwhelm and would like to explore how Leadership Coaching can help you eliminate it, contact Denver for a no-cost, no-obligation Leadership Coaching Strategy Session: denver@thewowmovement.com.

Workplace Culture: What Does “WOW!” Mean?

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When talking about workplace culture, leadership development, and the power of The WOW! Movement in an organization, I’m occasionally asked, “Denver, what do you mean by ‘WOW!’”? Actually there are several ways I define WOW! within The WOW! Movement including the following:

1. WOW! is a created experience. It’s the type of experience that makes another person (and perhaps yourself) say “WOW!” It defies mediocrity and blasts through the status quo. You can create “Experiences of WOW!” for co-workers, customers and other stakeholders, your spouse, children, friends… it’s a creative expression and way of relating where your very best is expressed with the intention of bringing life-enriching value to another person. A powerful way to create WOW! for others is to ask them what “WOW!” would look like for them.

2. WOW! is a way of being. It’s about living the highest vision you can imagine of yourself in this moment. It’s a calling forth of the greatness that lives inside of you, which you may be holding back for various reasons. The WOW! Movement helps helps you realize and unleash your strengths and gifts in new ways in service to the people and world around you.

3. WOW! is a coherent state of efficiency and effectiveness. The WOW! Movement is very much about bringing your energy into a state of coherence. When you are in a coherent state, there is virtually no energy wasted, and you are able to operate more efficiently and effectively. This results in more effective communication, higher performance, and greater health individually and collectively. Helping individuals, teams, and organizations to achieve a coherent state is a critical aspect of The WOW! Movement.

4. WOW! is a descriptive of the type of culture and world I believe we can all create. In The WOW! Movement, I call it a “Conscious Culture of Excellence.” Our families have cultures. Our organizations have cultures. Our country and world have cultures. And each of these cultures impact who we are and what is possible for the future. As we build Conscious Cultures of Excellence at home, work, and in our communities, we make new possibilities available to all of us.

Creating The WOW! Zone is about creating the internal and external conditions where the creation of WOW! as defined above is both the objective and the natural outcome.

Questions for reflection and action:

  • What is an “Experience of WOW!” that you can create for a coworker, customer, and/or spouse?
  • What is the highest vision you can imagine of your self? How committed are you to living into this highest vision?
  • What are some new practices you could embrace that would help you to slow down, get centered, and enjoy the efficiency and effectiveness of a coherent state?
  • What are the one or two words you would use to describe the culture of: (a) your organization, (b) your family, (c) your community? What one or two words would describe your ideal vision of these various cultures? What are you contributing to these cultures?

Post written by Coach Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement(TM)
Join me on my monthly, no-cost tele-event entitled Living and Leading WOW!  Held every 3rd Wednesday of the month, 12 – 1 p.m. Eastern/New York time. To sign-up and get the number to call visit: http://livingwow.thewowmovement.com.

Why Company Culture Matters

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In the not too distant past, you could easily gain a competitive advantage by having a unique product or service. Perhaps right now, you are feeling pretty confident. Your business is growing. You’re doing something unique. And the future looks bright indeed. In other words, your enjoying some “WOW!” And for that I say, “awesome”!

Yet, as you may know, competition is coming. In today’s business environment, companies are no longer enjoying a competitive advantage through unique products or services. If you’re successful, you’ll be duplicated. Emerging competitors are watching, learning, and preparing to join your success. They may duplicate your product or service, but there is one thing they cannot duplicate (or duplicate easily): your company culture and your leadership. And this is one of the fundamental reasons that company culture matters: it creates a strong competitive advantage.

Another reason company culture matters is because it serves to attract (or repel) top talent.  Imagine a competitor opening up shop. They have a similar product or service to the one you’re offering. They are a new, exciting company – and they have a culture that people love to work in, and they’re seeking the best talent they can find. They know about your company, and they know about some of your top talent. Now, let’s suppose that you haven’t put much attention on intentionally designing your workplace culture; it’s just formed over time on it’s own. You have an OK place to work; but the new guys in town have something new, fresh… and they’re intentional about it, so it’s likely to be sustainable. How will your top talent respond? It’s quite possible they’ll jump ship (or be highly tempted to) and join the new guys in town, especially if your culture has become stagnant or too “comfortable.”

Among other things, The WOW! Movement helps you and your organization to create a competitive advantage through your leadership and company culture. When your leadership team and organization embraces and integrates The WOW! Movement technology into your organization, it magnifies, expands, and calls forth more of the excellence of your leaders and employees. You create a place where people love to work, engage themselves fully, and support you in building an amazing business. And you create healthy, everyday ways of being and working from which “Experiences of WOW!” can easily be created in service to your stakeholders. This WILL set you apart in the marketplace.

Company culture matters. How are you intentionally creating a “Conscious Culture of Excellence” in your organization? If you need some support and guidance in this area, please contact me at denver@thewowmovement.com. Let’s create some WOW!

Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement.

 

 

How Desire for More Information Can Erode Your Ability to Lead

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Deciding to start this blog was not an easy decision for me; leaders are already drowning in a raging river of information. And if you are a leader who believes “staying current” with the new information is important – if not vital to your success – then you’re strapping on your life vest everyday day and jumping into the river. Have you noticed the under current of the information age is getting stronger?

This raging river of information has a downside that can erode your ability to lead: information addiction. You can easily get an “information fix” simply by turning on your smart phone and pushing a couple of buttons. Getting a fix has never been easier! In one sense, that is spectacular having all of that information at our fingertips. It’s easy to “learn” in this way. However, it can become a huge distraction that keeps us from moving through the challenges and discomforts of really developing who we ARE as leaders through real, embodied learning.

If you’re in the raging river of information right now, take a moment to swim over to the edge, step out and dry off. Just relax a moment. Take a few deep breaths… Let your internal river become calm… Close your eyes and just imagine the warmth of the sun radiating over your face and body… (Notice how challenging it is to do this simple exercise… notice how much you want to jump back in the river! Addiction? If you skipped doing the exercise, go back now and notice your experience as you slow down.)

This ability to “step out and dry off” from the raging river around you is critical to developing yourself as a leader. Applied to everyday situations, you – as a LEADER – have to be able to step out of the norm, the status quo, and the emotional processes of the people around you – and lead. You have to have the emotional resilience and nerve to be a stand for a something that is outside the norm – and be able to handle the negative emotions, resistance, and sabotage that will be coming toward you – and that will be arising within you. (This is true whether you are leading a family, a team, or an entire organization.)

The big point: more information and more techniques are NOT going to make you a great leader. What will make you a great leader is emotional mastery. The ability to remain calm and focused in any situation. The ability to remain centered within yourself – as your self – even when others are emotionally upset, even when the situation is chaotic, even when it seems the world is falling apart around you. And the ability to say “no” to meaningless information that has no value to you or your vision, even though there is the urge to jump into that raging river!

…I decided to go ahead with the blog because I plan to offer something different: a challenge. This blog will challenge each of us (myself included) to wake up, grow up, and show up as the powerful leaders that we can be. Not as leaders who are addicted to information, quick fixes, and new “techniques,” but as leaders who are growing in emotional maturity so we have the resilience, nerve, and strength to imagine, inspire, and lead our families, communities, and organizations into the future.  Are you in?

The WOW! Movement offers innovative and customized leadership development  programs that go beyond “more information and technique” and that supports you in achieving emotional mastery and leadership excellence. Contact me (Denver Hudson) today at 812.236.5780 to learn more or visit my website at www.thewowmovement.com.

Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement

Welcome to The WOW! Zone Conscious Leadership BLOG!

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A central aspect of The WOW! Movement, is the creation of what I call “The WOW! Zone.” The WOW! Zone is an intentionally created space of growth and development that demands our personal and collective excellence. Being in the zone is being in a culture of accountability where we are challenged to be and become our very best. It’s like rich, fertile soil in which our visions, intentions, and goals can be planted and realized. It’s an energizing environment where the human spirit can truly thrive as one’s strengths, gifts, and energies are shared freely in service to individual and collective fulfillment.

We all want this. We want to work in an organization, be a part of a family, live in a community, and celebrate a world where we can show up, be challenged, and truly excel. Today, more than any other time in history, people want to do work that matters. They want to be a part of something that is making a meaningful difference in the world. Studies show that MEANING is a bigger motivator than MONEY for most people. As leaders and owners of businesses, we have the opportunity to create workplace cultures where people are inspired, fully engaged, and giving their best in service to each other, customers, our communities, and the world at large.

This blog is dedicated to leaders like you who are ready to become more consciously aware, who are committed to their own growth and development, and who are a stand for creating organizations, communities, and a world where the human spirit can truly thrive.

The world is changing. Speeding up. Becoming more uncertain. And in many ways, it’s asking more from each of us. Not more than we are capable of being and doing, but it is asking us to be ALL that we are capable of being and doing. Being Conscious Leaders is about waking up to the reality within us and around us. It’s about leading from the realization that we live in an interconnected world with many stakeholders. It’s about living our lives as owners and co-creators, and leading others to do the same. As Conscious Leaders, we will be more effective in leading, serving, and creating value in the world.

Join me on this journey. Engage in the conversations that will be started here. Commit to waking up to more of what is possible for you, others, and the world. To receive new posts to this blog automatically via e-mail, please use the subscription box in the upper right-hand corner.

ENGAGE: Why is it important to you to be a “Conscious Leader”? What did you read in this post that inspired you – and that you would like to add to? (Please comment below.)

Post written by Denver J. Hudson, founder of The WOW! Movement